Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news
concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the
ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll
also be linking to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national
scope of this crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Syed Zaidi.

Writing in Newsday, Ian Vandewalker, counsel at the Brennan Center for
Justice, praised New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli for opting out of
the state’s poorly crafted public financing “pilot” program. Despite calls by
the public and several good government groups to comprehensively reform New
York’s campaign finance laws, Governor Cuomo and the legislative leadership failed
to deliver a real public financing system, instead agreeing upon an experiment
limited to the 2014 comptroller elections. The state’s notoriously
dysfunctional Board of Elections was empowered to implement the law for this
year’s upcoming comptroller race. “[T]he system was designed to implode,” said
Vandewalker. Furthermore, the bill, which was passed in a state budget agreement
in early April, fails to lower sky-high campaign contribution limits, close
campaign funding loopholes, or mandate greater disclosure of independent
expenditures by special interest groups.

Watertown Daily Times: Comptroller Right to Opt-out of Public Financing
“Pilot” Program

The Watertown Daily Times praised Comptroller DiNapoli for not
participating in New York’s public financing pilot program for election
campaigns. Although DiNapoli has been a strong supporter of reform, he said the
limited measure introduced during last-minute budget negotiations in early
April, was “designed to fail, by lawmakers who either do not really believe in,
or don’t understand, public campaign financing at all.” If implemented, the
half-hearted effort at reform, would have allowed opponents to point to the
poorly crafted model as an example of the failure of public financing. It has
unfortunately already provided an excuse for Governor Cuomo to
disband the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. Calling the
reform an inadequate response to the corrosive epidemic of corruption in the
New York legislature, the Watertown Daily
Times said that “lawmakers should go back to the drawing board.”

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty issued a
five-page ruling in New York Progress and
Protection PAC v. Walsh, overturning
New York State’s aggregate campaign contribution cap on donations to independent political groups. New
York State restricts the total amount one person may contribute to all candidates
and political action committees to $150,000 per election cycle. The case,
brought by the New York Progress and Protection PAC—a conservative super PAC
that sought to prop up Republican mayoral nominee Joe Lhota last year—argued that
Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon had the right to contribute more than
$150,000 to independent groups that supported Joe Lhota. Judge Crotty indicated
that although he was obliged to follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McCutcheon v. FEC, which recently invalidated federal aggregate contribution
limits, he disagreed
with the court’s analysis
and lamented that regular citizens “are too often drowned out by the few who
have great resources.” Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Brennan Center’s
Democracy Program, said that “It's not just the American public that is unhappy
with these decisions but a lot of the judiciary below the [U.S] Supreme Court.”

Friday, April 11, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news
concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the
ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll
also be linking to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national
scope of this crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Syed Zaidi.

In a Journal
News op-ed, Lawrence Norden and Frederick A.O Schwarz of the Brennan
Center, wrote that Governor Cuomo’s refusal to pass meaningful reform in the
state budget was especially disheartening in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent
decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. Despite his promise to
pass comprehensive public financing reform for all state elections, the
governor approved a narrow and ineffective pilot program for the Comptroller’s
office only. This “reform” package did nothing to reduce campaign contribution
limits or close loopholes that disproportionately benefit incumbents. Last
year, the Moreland Commission found New York’s campaign finance laws to be
wholly inadequate. McCutcheon has the potential to exacerbate the problem if
New York’s aggregate limits are struck down—which would allow a single
individual to donate over $2.4 million to political candidates and committees
in an election cycle. In this environment, another corruption scandal is
inevitable.

Campaign Finance Laws Empower Donor Class Over Middle Class

In conjunction with the U.S. Supreme Court decision to
strike down aggregate contribution limits, the lack of real reform in the New
York State budget empowers
the 1 percent, wrote Katrina vanden Heuvel in the Washington Post. The
donor class now has greater opportunities to buy access to our elected officials.
“We live in a world where…public policy is auctioned off to the highest bidder,”
vanden Heuvel said. The systematic dismantling of campaign finance laws
explains why we’ve failed to make progress on other issues—everything “from
lower taxes to deregulation.” Nevertheless, there are ways that citizens can
fight back against the avalanche of big money in politics, ranging from federal
legislation to a constitutional amendment, all outlined in the article.

Poughkeepsie Journal: Moreland Commission Should Not Be
Shutdown

Last week, the Poughkeepsie
Journal criticized Governor Cuomo’s decision to dismantle the Moreland
Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, stating that its “job is far from
done.” With more than 30 state lawmakers who have been embroiled in legal or
ethical dilemmas since 2000, the state needs an independent watchdog with
subpoena powers to not only examine individual instances of wrongdoing, but
also to propose solutions to systemic problems of corruption that plague New
York. In its 2013 report, the commission outlined examples of illegal and
unethical behavior by campaign contributors and lawmakers looking for big
checks. However, it did not identify the perpetrators by name. It was expecting
to deliver another report by the end of this year and refer the names to law
enforcement. “At bare minimum, the state must let the panel complete these
tasks.” The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, has taken
possession of the commission’s files and indicated that his office will
investigate any evidence of corruption.

“Reform” Deliberately Designed to Fail

In City
& State, Morgan Pehme called out New York State political leaders—the
“four men in the room”—for creating a façade of good government reform, while
perpetuating a status quo which greatly benefits incumbents. The budget adopted
last week constructed a new pilot public financing program for the state
comptroller’s race. The only problem; it was “concocted deliberately” so that
it would fail. The notoriously dysfunctional state board of elections was
allocated the responsibility for managing this program. It had to be prepared
to implement the law in time for the approaching 2014 elections. Pehme
explained that the failure of public financing would allow incumbents to claim
that “this experiment should never” be attempted again. It is no surprise that
Comptroller DiNapoli, a stern supporter of public financing, choose
to opt-out of the ill-crafted proposal. Legislators now need to go back to
the drawing board to create a comprehensive reform proposal that includes
public financing for all state races and adequate funds for enforcement.

Monday, April 07, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news
concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the
ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll
also be linking to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national
scope of this crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Syed Zaidi.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders passed
New York’s 2014-15 budget last week without a comprehensive small donor public
matching system—instead establishing a very limited pilot public financing
program for the state comptroller’s race in 2014. Adding to this lapse in
leadership, Governor Cuomo said he will disband the Moreland Commission to
Investigate Public Corruption, labeling the narrow ethics reforms in the budget
a triumph. This was an especially disappointing development in light of
the myriad
of corruption scandals that engulfed several legislators in recent years,
including three of the last five Senate Majority Leaders or Co-leaders. Newspapers
throughout the state saw through the spin. The New
York Times opined that the budget’s inadequate ethics reforms do not
“come close to attacking the root of the corruption problem” in Albany. “The
most fundamental reform,” the Times continued, namely public matching funds for
small donations in all state races, “is missing.”

Syracuse Post-Standard: Public Financing “Pilot” Program a
Cop-out

The Syracuse
Post-Standard reiterated the shortfalls of the 2014-15 New York budget in
an editorial last week. Calling restricting public financing to the comptroller’s
office a “cop-out,” the upstate newspaper said that New York City’s successful
model demonstrates that a “pilot” program is unnecessary. If such a system
would have been implemented, it could have enabled candidates who can’t garner
big checks from special interests to compete with small dollar donations from
constituents. Unfortunately for now, the status quo, which allows incumbents to
build up their war chest to scare off any potential competitors, remains
intact.

On Tuesday, the Albany
Times-Union termed Governor Cuomo’s failure to pass comprehensive ethics
reform the state government’s “most glaring failure.” Last year, the Moreland
Commission—which the governor appointed to examine New York’s corruption and
campaign finance laws—issued a thorough report detailing the legal and ethical
breaches that have become so commonplace in Albany over the past few years. In
response to the inadequacy of the current system to address pay-to-play
politics, the commission recommended several reforms including public funding
to match small donations. Unfortunately, Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders
“concluded that reform is appropriate only on a very small scale, and only as
long as it doesn’t apply to themselves.” The outcome is surprising considering
that most legislators, as well as the governor, claimed to support full public
financing for all races.

Crain’s New York Business: Ethics Deal Does Little to Deter
Corruption

On April 4, Crain’s
New York Business criticized New York lawmakers for their inability to
deliver on ethics reform. “At least 30 [state legislators] have left office
since 1999 because of transgressions ranging from inflating their expenses to
sexual harassment to taking bribes,” the editorial stated. Yet the reform
provision in the budget made only minor changes to state corruption laws and delegated
slightly greater enforcement authority to the state Board of Elections. It did
nothing to address the problem of legislators pushing bills or steering funds
at the request of special interests and campaign contributors. The decision to
eliminate the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption was
especially troubling, Crain’s said—just as the investigators “had dug their
teeth into a plethora of questionable dealings.”

Upstate Newspapers: Ethics Reforms Insufficient to Address
Corruption

The Rochester-based Democrat
& Chronicle called Governor Cuomo’s inability to pass comprehensive
campaign finance reform his administration’s “most notable first-term failure.”
The alternative to public financing for all races—a limited measure for the
state comptroller election in 2014—was too little and too late, given the
election year. The Buffalo
News concurred, saying the plan was a “laughingstock.” The dysfunctional
state Board of Elections is inadequately prepared to implement a public
financing program for the comptroller’s office this election cycle. Moreover, sky-high
campaign contribution limits, and loopholes for special interests hoping to get
noticed by politicians, are still the norm in Albany for the foreseeable future.
Overall, the budget bill was not a compromise for anyone, it was a disappointment.

I am a member of NY-LEAD, New York
Leadership for Accountable Government (I express only my own opinions here). I
attended the luncheon in New York City a little over a year ago when you spoke
to our group so convincingly about the need for public campaign financing and
its importance to restoring trust in government. That expression of such
strong, unqualified support makes the near-complete capitulation on this issue
in this year’s budget all the more galling, immensely frustrating, and
devastatingly disappointing.

You talked about the need for
reform supporters to put pressure on public officials to move this issue
forward. I believe that such organizations have more than held up their part of
the bargain. They have done their best to convince our legislators through
persuasion on policy and demonstration of constituent support, and raised the
possibilities of primary and general election challenges. Poll after poll shows
the public strongly supporting reform, with public campaign financing popular
across the political spectrum. There is no inherent reason why this should be a
partisan issue; a vote on this subject should be an easy one for any
public-minded official, not a tough one.

And I find it inexplicable that the
Moreland Commission, which was tasked with investigating corruption in the
political process, has been terminated. If the suspected influence of money in
politics justified the commission in the first place, it is hard to fathom a
non-political reason to suspend its operations now, before its mission has been
completed.

With the public squarely on the
side of reform, there comes a time when our elected officials must stop talking
and lead. In my opinion, the time for action has long passed. There is no good
reason not to get comprehensive campaign finance reform done, and there are no
excuses for further delays. It is increasingly difficult for people like me who
care deeply about our democracy to support those whose actions fail to
demonstrate a serious commitment to reform, regardless of what they say on the
matter.

Now is the time to back up words
with action. Beyond the need to restore confidence in our state government, the
nation desperately needs a model for a campaign finance system that reduces the
dependence of our elected officials on big money which currently permeates and
warps our government. The public is with us on this, but it requires leaders in
Albany who will move beyond talk and take the necessary measures to get the job
done.